The Star: October 05, 2017

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12 Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi News Thursday October 5 2017 Local News Now The Star Fire rages, homes at risk Six-year battle to stop sex workers • By Kurt Bayer MATT BONIS thought his family had escaped the worst when the earthquakes hit. Their St Albans home stood up well in the violent shaking that wiped out large swathes of the eastern suburbs and felled much of the nearby central business district. But as the aftershocks rumbled on, New Zealand’s greatest modern natural disaster brought with it an unexpected consequence for father-of-two Bonis and his neighbours. They suddenly found their normal, quiet suburban street turned into the nation’s second biggest street sex trade epicentre. Prostitutes, and their pimps, had for years plied their trade on a seedy red light stretch of Manchester St, south of Bealey Ave inside the city’s old Four Avenues boundary. But when the quakes flattened the CBD, and an army-patrolled cordon kept the public away from potentially-dangerous buildings and falling masonry, the sex workers migrated north of Bealey Ave. And for the last six years, they haven’t really moved. For Mr Bonis and many residents of that Manchester St area around the corner of Purchas St, life has proved a living hell. In their gardens and around their properties, residents have found needles and syringes, human faeces, used condoms, and litter. Vandalism to houses and cars has been reported, as well as thefts. One elderly couple found a prostitute “servicing a client” on their lawn at 3am, and when they asked them to leave, had their car vandalised. Attempts to ask the prostitutes to move on are often met with threats and intimidation, locals say. Mr Bonis made a police complaint last year after three prostitutes allegedly threatened to burn his house down at 3am with his family inside. The trade starts about 10pm and often goes through to 6am or 7am. “They yell price lists to their clients, they yell all sorts to each other. My son who is now 11 knows the price lists, he knows what a transvestite is. It’s everything you try and protect your children from,” Mr Bonis says. Since 2011, Mr Bonis and fellow residents have tried to get help from police, the city council, the Government and the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective to try to move the sex workers away from the residential zone. Mr Bonis says he’s made more than 300 calls over the last six years to police over noise and other complaints. “It’s got to point where they don’t respond at all now,” he says. The residents have been campaigning for a bylaw to ban the sex workers from the residential area. Some have already given up, sold, and moved on. A camera was installed last year on the corner of Manchester and Purchas Sts in a joint initiative by then city councillor Ali Jones, security camera firm ATF Vision and police to deter clients of the sex workers and document antisocial behaviour. But residents say it’s failed to curb the kerb crawlers, and more often than not, there is a sex worker on all four corners. Former city councillor Aaron Keown erected ‘No street workers at all times’ signs in the area in 2013, but council staff took them down because they were deemed illegal. Central Christchurch resident Andrew Huntley launched a petition earlier this year to get the city council to ban prostitutes soliciting in residential areas through the introduction of a bylaw. “Personally I am fed up being offered a blow job for $20 when HAD ENOUGH: Matt Bonis on the corner of Manchester and Purchas Sts near his home, where residents are fed up with sex workers and anti-social behaviour. PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER I’m walking my dog at 6am in the morning,” Mr Huntley said. “I’m fed up having to watch where my dog walks in case of needles. I’m fed up having prostitutes leering at me in my car to see if I’m a potential punter just when I drive to and from my home address, and I am right over them exposing their breasts, backsides and genitalia in broad daylight on some occasions when I have driven by – I have to, I live here. “I’m fed up having condoms dropped on the verge outside where I live, and am struggling to get the image out of my mind of the prostitute defecating in full view, one morning when I left for work.” The residents were buoyed earlier this year when police indicated they would back the city council in enforcing a bylaw to regulate the street-based sex work, especially in residential areas. •Turn to page 15 NEW LOCATION 13b Parkhouse Rd, Christchurch 5 Year Warranty Materials 1 Year Warranty Moving parts T39 Toilet $199 T005 Toilet $259 HTLSQ4 $119 600W x 500H x 120D HTLSQ6 $139 600W x 800H x 120D HTLSQ8 $159 600W x 1000H x 120D End of Line and Display Vanitys up to 50% Off Open 7 Days Mon-Fri 9am - 5.30pm | Sat 9.30am - 4pm | Sun 10am-3pm 0800 MILLEN | www.millen.co.nz | 03 348 8678
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The Star: October 05, 2017

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